Alice Arden, idealistic and wealthy beauty, burnt at the stake for killing her husband, the former mayor of Faversham in Kent. But was she really the one responsible for the most scandalous murder of the sixteenth century?
William Shakespeare, England’s greatest playwright, born thirteen years after Alice’s execution. Why does his first-ever play, written about this murder, not bear his name?
This is a story of two people – one reviled, one revered – whose fates become linked in a tale of corruption, collusion and conspiracy. Based on historical documents and recently published academic research, Arden unveils shocking new evidence about the murder of Thomas Arden and reveals, for the first time, a remarkable new theory about Shakespeare’s early years.
Arden by GD Harper is a beautifully crafted tale of two individuals, separated by forty years, with the one entirely unaware of the other, that reimagines the hows, whats and ifs of Shakespeare’s earliest efforts to become a playwright and the story that ‘called’ to him to enable him to do so.
Offering us two points of view, that of Alice Arden, and Shakespeare himself, we travel through the years that lead to Alice’s crisis and see how Shakespeare was himself plagued by her story. To begin with, Alice is the most likeable character. Young, bright, and vivacious, she pulls the reader along through the years when Shakespeare is not at all the man we might expect him to be. His life is difficult (perhaps because he makes it so, to be honest), but soon his dreams of being an actor and writing plays becomes his driving force. At the same time, Alice’s life is blighted by her marriage to a man of ambition but no regard for the life of his wife, who is deeply unhappy. Shakespeare’s life improves as events rumble towards their awful conclusion for Alice. But he is still somewhat haunted by the tale of Alice Arden, and I adored how her final narrative is teased from those who have knowledge of it that isn’t known by all. It is horrific.
This was such an engaging narrative. I liked neither character at points, but they both had endearing qualities that made it a joy to read this fictionalised account of what might have been.
I have written four novels in the last eight years under the penname GD Harper.
My last novel, The Maids of Biddenden, the imagined biography of real-life conjoined twins born in 12th-century Kent, was featured on BBC TV News and was the winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the historical fiction category, shortlisted for the 2022 Selfie Award at the London Book Fair, and shortlisted or longlisted for five other awards.
It has over a thousand ratings on Amazon UK and Goodreads, with an average score of 4.3. Across the major Amazon markets, it reached number sixteen in overall paid-for e-book sales, number two in historical fiction and number one in medieval historical fiction.
We regret to announce the tragic death of Phoebe Fredericks…
When crime novelist Phoebe opens the post and receives an invitation to her own funeral, she’s horrified. Not least because the date of her death is marked as tomorrow.
Deciding it’s nothing more than a prank from an enemy from her past, she determines to put it to the back of her mind.
But the next morning, when her completely infuriating postman (who likes to think himself her no.1 literary critic) rings her doorbell, a parcel of poisoned pen-nibs explodes in his face. Forced to confront the fact her correspondence is more RIP than RSVP, Phoeve realises someone must want her dead.
Together with the newly-formed Village Detectives – Juno, Mil and Felix – Phoebe resolves to find out who is behind the poison pen letters before they strike again and her fate is signed, sealed and delivered!
An totally hilarious, modern cozy crime mystery, from million-copy bestselling author Fiona Walker, perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janet Evanovich and Janice Hallett.
The Poison Pen Letters is the second book in The Village Detective Series (or the VDs, as Juno somewhat unwittingly terms them). I’ve read book one and really enjoyed it. Book two is even stronger, perhaps because I know the characters, but also, I think because the plotting is even more secure. I genuinely had no idea who the real culprit was, which was fabulous.
Book 2 sees our intrepid foursome tackling the problem of who murdered the local postie on Phoebe’s doorstep with the use of a poison pen letter – a crime that, even though you know it’s coming at some point, is still quite shocking. While Pheobe’s husband is determined it’s someone outside the village from their past, Pheobe has other ideas. But of course, she is once more penning one of her crime novels (the little additions of that novel are delicious) and has no real time to focus on what’s happening. Juno is as outrageous as ever, and her mother is such a fun character as she dips in and out of the narrative, as does her creaky car.
The personalities of a small village are lovingly brought to life, and I appreciated all the N gauge model railway comments, as I once spent some time selling off a set. It was also good to see @VeryBritishProblems mentioned as part of the social media universe that makes up a large part of the novel.
The Poison Pen Letters is brimming with fabulous characters and a perplexing crime, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Meet the author
Fiona Walker is the million copy bestselling author of joyously funny romantic comedies. Most recently published by Head of Zeus, she will be turning to cozy crime for Boldwood. The first in her new Village Detectives series, The Art of Murder, will be published in May 2024.
In a charming seaside town, secrets don’t stay buried for long…
Body of Chef Found in Wall Three Years After He ‘Left to go to Australia’
Human remains found inside the wall of a disused building have now been identified as those of Victor Blackwell. He was the head chef at Windstanton’s The Seaside Lounge until just over three years ago, when, according his friends, he left for a job in Australia. Detective Inspector Albert Finch from Fenshire’s Cold Case Unit has asked for anyone who has information about the chef’s movements three years ago to come forward.
We have no choice! With only three weeks until the Grand Opening, the last thing Bea and Perry need is the grim discovery of a skeleton in the wall of Simon and Ryan’s soon-to-open restaurant, SaltAir. But when it’s designated a crime scene, and the policeman in charge of the investigation into Vic’s murder refuses to let them have access to continue the refurbishment, they have no other option than to investigate the murder themselves or risk letting Simon and Ryan down.
But in a town where everyone harbours secrets, can they uncover the truth in time or will SaltAir’s opening be a damp squib?
A Death of Fresh Air is the new book in the Right Royal Cozy Mystery series. I’ve read all the previous books and love the series and characters. It’s always a treat to have a new one to devour.
The new book begins with the chance discovery of a man believed to have left the country three years before. What follows is typical of Bea and Perry’s determination to solve the mystery of how the body ended up in the new restaurant, who put it there, and why the poor man had to die. Never to be put off by looming deadlines, our intrepid duo, ably assisted by some of our series regulars, get to work. And the story that unfolds is as complex and satisfying as other books in the series. I enjoy these stories because the solutions never feel contrived while remaining complex. The solution is never easy.
While all this is happening, both Bea and Perry are contending with challenges in their personal lives as well, which moves the series on but never overwhelms the mystery. I think it’s a tough balancing act, and Helen Golden manages it perfectly.
Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.
Check out my reviews for the other books in this fabulous series.
Hello. I’m Helen Golden. I write British contemporary cozy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise.
I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it.
It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes
The inspiration behind The Custard Corpses #histfic #mystery
The inspiration behind The Custard Corpses is a bit weird, even I admit that
My father had, for many years, bought and sold antique paraphernalia, mostly maps, but also other items as well – books, stamps, old vellum deeds, postcards – you get the idea. With the restrictions during Lockdown, he wasn’t able to sell as normal at his antique fairs, and having put off having an online presence, he finally decided to open an eBay shop – but needed tech support. And so, as ‘tech support’, he started sending me all sorts of fascinating items to list, but the one that really got my attention were the advertisements that ran in the Picture Post magazines for Bird’s Custard.
They’re bright, they’re inviting, they are, to put it bluntly, before their time. They have lovely catchphrases, such as ‘every little helps’ which Tesco use now. The black and white images on the coloured background ensure the readers eye is drawn to the happy child, and they do make you want to eat custard.
I wanted to share them with as many people as possible so that they could catch a glimpse of these old campaigns. There were other advertisements as well in the magazines, ones for Pepsi and for Shell, to name a few, but it was the Bird’s Custard ones that really captured my imagination. But how could I share them with people?
Well, my mind works in strange ways, and I began to consider a mystery that would somehow be relevant to the advertisements, so it needed to be set during the period the Picture Post magazine was produced from 1938 to the 1950s. And so, The Custard Corpses.
I set The Custard Corpses during the Second World War, but that was really because it fit with the adverts I’d seen, the added bonus that I could then use the well-known events of the war was a secondary consideration.
Where I set the book was entirely based on the fact that I had family members who’d lived in Erdington at the time. I was able to pick the brains of my Dad for the little details that I didn’t know or couldn’t remember, not that he was born in 1943, but not long after.
It was all quite random, in the end, and there was a swell of little details that I uncovered that just, through pure happenstance, fitted together. It helped that I wanted to try my hand at something more modern than the eleventh century, but still historical. But I’m not an expert on any other time period, so I suppose it was an easy choice to decide on a setting that was just within living memory of some. I couldn’t visit anywhere due to Lockdown, so familiar was best.
Is this the weirdest reason to have written a book?
Buy The Custard Corpses here, available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio. Or, check out the signed editions page to get a copy directly from me. Book 3, The Secret Sauce, is available now, (as is book 2, The Automobile Assassination), and the Barrage Body is coming very soon.
When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it is rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year.
For Martha Thornhill, the new senior editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant older sister Charlie went missing. After a decade abroad, Martha has returned home to the city whose ancient institutions have long defined her family. Have the ghosts she left behind her been waiting for her return?
When more letters arrive, and Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. It seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone is trying to lead the lexicographers towards the truth. But other forces are no less desperate to keep it well and truly buried.
Guilty by Definition rises above other celebrity mysteries by being excellent.
This story is well-plotted and well-devised, delightfully intermingled with snippets about the Clarendon Dictionary and the little foibles of the English language, and has a great storyline. It also offers a lovely conjuring of Oxford and the surrounding location—as well as some special Oxford-specific events.
Our four main characters are well-developed, and all have their secrets as they endeavour to solve the perplexing riddles and, in doing so, answer the questions surrounding Martha’s sister’s disappearance.
It is a complex mystery that is sure to appeal to fans of the genre and the English language. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I loved it:)
Now we’ve reached the end, it’s time to go back to the beginning
If you’ve not yet had enough of the characters from The Brunanburh Series, then I have good news for you. I wrote a prequel short story from Athelstan’s point of view, and you can download it for free following this link below. You do have to give your email details and sign up for my Boldwood Books newsletters, but they are not at all aggressive with their marketing (I know – I follow myself to make sure) and you will hear from them only about new releases and book related news. And you get a free prequel short story via Bookfunnel. What’s not to love:)
Being a book reviewer is really hard work. I know because I do it myself. And so, I want to give a huge thank you to the book reviewers and bloggers who have helped launched Kings of Conflict throughout the last week, and to Rachel who organises them. (And also to my personal Street Team who are fabulous and so committed.) Everyone thinks that book reviewing must be great because you get to read books before everyone else, (and they’re free) but that overlooks the time and energy it takes to read and review every book and then make them look fancy on the internet. It can be very hard to juggle deadlines and then sometimes, you just don’t gell with a book/character and so, it’s not all free books and leisurely afternoons reading with a coffee (or beverage of choice). It can feel quite pressured. There is an overwhelming urge to want to help an author do really well with every new release. So, a huge thank you to these wonderful people, many of whom I have come to know really well, and I am so grateful to them. (You can check out the highlights from their reviews below – and you can also find the full reviews by typing their names in your search engine).
Then pick up the free prequel story, and you can read book 1, King of Kings, free with Prime Reading and it’s also in Kindle Unlimited. The first chapter recreates King Athelstan’s coronation ceremony, and then the politics and chaos descends. Enjoy.
In 2014, I had the ‘amazing’ idea to write a novel about the events that led to the famous battle of Brunanburh in 937 – the greatest battle on British soil that few people have ever heard about (Or certainly hadn’t heard about back then – who knew Uhtred of Bebbanburg would be taking part in it).
My reasons were two-fold. I’d just read Sarah Foot’s monograph on Athelstan, and the UK was in the grip of a vote for Scottish Independence. It made me consider the union of the kingdoms of Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland and the history behind it. But, it also stemmed from my own frustration with the way we’re taught history in the UK. ‘United’ it might say but if you go to school in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland you will be taught the ‘history’ of those kingdoms (and only those kingdoms)- that was when I was a kid, and I think it’s still true – very little ‘joined up’ thinking, and this is something that continues to cause problems today, and not just in the UK, but everywhere. Country-specific agendas fall down when looking at periods before these kingdoms actually existed – and the desire to see the ‘march’ towards unity as simple also misses the naunces.
In the first book in what became the Brunanburh Series, I wanted to examine these kingdoms – to unpick the seeming ‘inevitability’ of it all – and it massively helped that despite what might come before, and after, and as little as it may seem – we do know a surprising amount about the kings who fought at Brunanburh. What we don’t know (although the Wirral is now almost ‘accepted’ as the correct location) is where Brunanburh took place, and what actually led to it. It was time for me to get writing.
1100th Anniversary of Athelstan becoming king of Mercia
2024 marks the 1100th anniversary of King Athelstan becoming king of Mercia (although his coronation as king of the English took place in 925 – so a year later (read my post about this period here). While he has been often overlooked between the alleged ‘greatness’ of King Alfred (871-899), and the alleged ‘failure’ of King Æthelred II (978-1033/1013-1016), Alfred’s great great grandson, more and more historical investigation is being undertaken on Athelstan, and indeed, his half-brother, Edmund, who is one of the other characters in the series. (It might also have helped that Athelstan features in Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom series). A spotlight is being shone on all Athelstan accomplished, and the move is also encompassing Edmund, (as well as Eadred, and Eadwig – these three often overlooked).
Non-fiction books to read
And this investigation is also looking at events in what would be Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as the Norse kings of Jorvik. The approach I’ve taken, is one that historians are examining – Alex Woolf’s From Pictland to Alba and Claire Downham’s Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland (they did it before me – but their books have helped me massively), as well as Max Adams’ Ælfred’s Britain which focused on much more than just Alfred.
My conclusions from writing about this period?
What then can I say after four books considering this period? Quite simply, nothing is as easy to explain or account for as might be hoped. The sources that have survived come with so many explanations about translation (they are not written in English – and indeed we have Old English, Latin, Old Irish, Old Welsh etc) bias, survival, manipulation, and corroboration (one source is often used to corroborate another) that sometimes it feels easier to hold my hands up and say ‘who knows?’
Attempts to draw together a cohesive narrative are constantly thwarted. One historian may argue for one thing, another for another. Every person who studies the period will have their own levels of ‘acceptable’ when looking at the sources. I am always wary of Saints Lives – they were not intended, and can not be, accepted as historical ‘fact’ but they do tell us a lot about reputation – another interesting facet to consider. The Icelandic Sagas must also come with a host of caveats. I also have to rely on translations and therefore remove myself from the original intention of the scribe once more.
The joy of this period is in the nuances that can be exploited – it is also where most people are likely to argue. And indeed, readers may fail to comprehend these nuances – hence the ‘it’s too predicatable’ complaint- I imagine all of ‘my’ kings would have welcomed the preditability of knowing the eventual outcome.
Trying to explain concepts such as ‘this is the first king of the English,’ ‘Hywel’s a king of all the Welsh’ falter because my audience expect these places to be united and under one king – but alas, were rarely that. The other England-specific failure to teach history before ‘1066’ also adds to these problems. The Saxon period is deemed as ‘weird,’ (the names, oh the names). There is so much going on, that even I have fallen down and made mistakes, and only with a sort of ‘doh’ moment made the connection between the name Brunanburh and the element of most interest ‘burh.’ (Thank you Bernard Cornwell for that moment of understanding – I still feel very, very stupid about it – not his fault).
Team Norse, Team England, Team Wales or Team Scots?
To tell a story such as this involves standing on the shoulders of giants. I am indebted to them – and sometimes, a bit narked that they won’t give me any definites either – what I will say is this – I understand a lot more now. I hope others do as well. And whether you’re Team England, Team Norse, Team land of the Scots, or Team what would be Wales, I hope you enjoyed meeting these long-dead men and women and realising that they were just as shifty, ambitious and perhaps, blood-thirsty, as people are today. I really can’t ask for more than that, other than you read the non-fiction for the period as well, and hopefully, enjoy it.
Having written more books than I probably should about the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and with more planned, I’ve somewhat belatedly realised I’ve never explained what Mercia actually was. I’m going to correct that now.
Having grown up within the ancient kingdom of Mercia, still referenced today in such titles as the West Mercia Police, I feel I’ve always been aware of the heritage of the Midlands of England. But that doesn’t mean everyone else is.
Where was Mercia?
Simply put, the kingdom of Mercia, in existence from c.550 to about c.925 (and then continuing as an ealdordom, and then earldom) covered the area in the English Midlands, perhaps most easily described as the area north of the River Thames, and south of the Humber Estuary – indeed, nerdy historians, and Bede, call the area the kingdom of the Southumbrians, in contrast to the kingdom of the Northumbrians – do you see what Bede did there?
While it was not always that contained, and while it was not always that large, Mercia was essentially a land-locked state (if you ignore all the rivers that gave easy access to the sea), in the heartland of what we now know as England.
What was Mercia?
Mercia was one of the Heptarchy—the seven ancient kingdoms that came to dominate Saxon England – Mercia, Wessex (West Saxons), the East Angles, Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons) and Kent.
In time, it would be one of only four to survive the infighting and amalgamation of the smaller kingdoms, alongside Northumbria, the kingdom of the East Angles, Mercia, and Wessex (the West Saxons).
The End of Mercia?
Subsequently, it has traditionally been said to have been subsumed by the kingdom of Wessex, which then grew to become all of ‘England’ as we know it.
This argument is subject to some current debate, especially as the king credited with doing this, Athelstan, the first and only of his name, might well have been born into the West Saxon dynasty but was potentially raised in Mercia, by his aunt, Lady Æthelflæd, and was, indeed, declared king of Mercia on the death of his father, King Edward the Elder in July 924, and only subsequently became king of Wessex, and eventually, king of all England.
Mercia’s kings
But, before all that, Mercia had its own kings. One of the earliest, and perhaps most well-known, was Penda, in the mid-7th century, the alleged last great pagan king. (Penda features in my Gods and Kings trilogy). Throughout the eighth century, Mercia had two more powerful kings, Æthelbald and Offa (of Offa’s Dyke fame), and then the ninth century saw kings Wiglaf and Coelwulf II (both of whom feature as characters in my later series, The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles and the Mercian Ninth Century), before the events of the last 800s saw Æthelflæd, one of the most famous rulers, leading the kingdom against the Viking raiders.
The Earldom of Mercia
And even when the kingdom itself ceased to exist, it persisted in the ealdordom and earldom of Mercia, (sometimes subdivided further), and I’ve also written about the House of Leofwine, who were ealdormen and then earls of Mercia throughout the final century of Saxon England, a steadfast family not outmatched by any other family, even the ruling line of the House of Wessex.
In fact, Mercia, as I said above, persists as an idea today even though it’s been many years since the end of Saxon England. And indeed, my two Erdington Mysteries, are also set in a place that would have been part of Mercia a thousand years before:) (I may be a little bit obsessed with the place).
Set against the majestic backdrop of Imperial Istanbul in the aftermath of the First World War, A Farewell To Imperial Istanbul is a captivating tale of family, duty and the resilience of the human spirit.
İstanbul, 1922: As the Ottoman Empire crumbles in the wake of the Great War, the fate of the Imperial capital and the House of Osman come under threat. Emboldened following their victory in the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish Nationalist Government in Ankara abolishes the Ottoman Sultanate, marking the end of over six centuries of Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Caliphate endures for now, but Istanbul, stripped of its Imperial mantle, mourns its lost glory. Prince Nihadfears for the nation and the fate of the Imperial family, while his son, Prince Vâsıb, envisions a hopeful future defined by peace following the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.
As the new Republic of Türkiye emerges from the ashes of the once-mighty Ottoman Empire, Istanbul and the Ottoman Dynasty confront the crossroads of history, their destinies entwined with the shifting tides of the Bosphorus. Yet, amidst these perilous currents that separate East and West, where the deep waters threaten to engulf the city’s Imperial past and sweep away its soul embodied by the Imperial family, the Ottoman Dynasty must navigate a new and uncertain course.
The history of the Turks and their vast and powerful Empire has been intertwined with the Ottoman Dynasty for over six hundred years. But can the Imperial family survive the tempest of change as the world enters a new era?
Ayşe Gülnev Osmanoğlu is a member of the Ottoman Imperial family, being descended from Sultan Murad V through her grandfather, and from Sultan Mehmed V (Mehmed Reşad) through her grandmother. After reading History and Politics at the University of Exeter, she obtained an M.A. in Turkish Studies from SOAS, University of London, where she specialised in Ottoman History. Her debut novel, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus was published in 2020.
Ayşe Osmanoğlu lives between Türkiye, France and the United Kingdom with her husband, five children and two cats. Her research and literary works concentrate on the late Ottoman period, exploring narratives embedded in her imperial heritage.
Giveaway To Win an A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul prize bundle… (Open to UK Only)
The list of prizes is below:
Paperback signed copy of A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul
Scented Candle from the Imperial İstanbul Collection – Scent: Harem Garden (Jasmine, Rose & Orange Blossom)
Black matchsticks
Traditional Rose Turkish Delight
A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul postcard
Set of four A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul bookmarks
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
I’m delighted to be sharing a guest post by Juliet Greenwood about how she researched the historical elements of her new book, The Secret Daughter of Venice.
Researching the experience of women in WW2
I found the hardest part of my research for The Secret Daughter of Venice, as with all my books, was finding events described from the point of view of the women who survived WW2, both in the UK and in Europe. There is getting to be more information now about ‘ordinary’ people, as well as the soldiers, the generals, the heads of state and the politicians who have always been at the centre of the story, but it is still difficult to find first-hand accounts and to really gauge how people lived, how they thought, how they survived.
I can remember as a child instinctively noticing the difference, without being able to put it into words, between the films about the war that generally focused on the heroics of battles, while at the same time hearing my parents and their generation re-living their experiences of everyday life under the shadow of shortages, of the possibility of death at any moment and the fear of what would happen should the UK be invaded. What I remember from the French side of the family, along with my teachers who had arrived in the UK as refugees from France and Germany, is the silence. I think, even then, I understood that all they had lived through, and were still living with, such as family lost in the gas chambers and memories of the firestorm in Hamburg, were too traumatic to express.
That was when I began to feel that I wanted to know more about the invisible, every day, experience of war. That’s not to say that the experience of those fighting evil in any way they could, or surviving the obscenity of concentration camps, is any less vital. It’s just that those have the information readily, and have been written about at length, while the women and children still remain largely silent.
The research I found most challenging involved the experience of women, and children and civilians in Europe during the war. Kate, the heroine of The Secret Daughter of Venice, experiences the war largely in Cornwall where, despite the shortages and the fear, and the anxiety for those at the front, life is ordered and purposeful, focused on growing food and looking after orphaned children in a place safe from the bombing of UK cities. It is only after the war has ended that she sees the utter destruction in Naples, the traumatised children left alone and fending for themselves, vulnerable to anyone wishing to prey on the desperate. Sofia, the second main character in the book, survives the war in Venice, where there is not the physical destruction experienced in the surrounding countryside, but the fear, along with shortages and hardship, seep into all parts of life, particularly once the Italians overthrow the fascist Mussolini and join the allies in the fight against Hitler, leading to Venice being occupied by the German army.
Like with my previous novel for Storm, The Last Train from Paris, I tried to glean from snippets of information what it must have been like to live through such terrifying times. How do you live when your country has been invaded by an alien force, when your existence, and those of your children, is meaningless, to be snuffed out on a whim? The Europe left after WW2 was very similar to the utter destruction we now see on our TV screens, with cities decimated, leaving no housing, no hospitals, no way of making a living, and, even if you have money, no food to buy, not even safe water to drink? I can see why reporters focus on the horrors, but we still have relatively little information of the quiet heroism of surviving day to day, when all the benefits of modern life have been stripped away.
I did find some first-hand accounts that gave me clues, including local newspapers and the oral histories contained in the BBC’s WW2 People’s War. But, in the end, I found myself going back to my memories of those I had heard talk – or not speak at all – of living through such times to try and get under the skin of what it must have been like. I can just hope that, in some measure, it helps to break the silence.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Here’s the blurb
The paper is stiff and brittle with age as Kate unfolds it with trembling hands. She gasps at the pencil sketch of a rippling waterway, lined by tall buildings, curving towards the dome of a cathedral. She feels a connection deep in her heart. Venice.
England, 1941. When Kate Arden discovers a secret stash of drawings hidden in the pages of an old volume of poetry given to her as a baby, her breath catches. All her life, she has felt like an outsider in her aristocratic adoptive family, who refuse to answer any questions about her past. But the drawings spark a forgotten memory: a long journey by boat… warm arms that held her tight, and then let go.
Could these pictures unlock the secret of who she is? Why her mother left her? With war raging around the continent, she will brave everything to find out…
A gripping, emotional historical novel of love and art that will captivate fans of The Venice Sketchbook, The Woman on the Bridge and The Nightingale.
Juliet Greenwood is a historical novelist published by Storm Publishing. Her previous novel, The Last Train from Paris, was published to rave reviews and reached the top 100 kindle chart in the USA. She has long been inspired by the histories of the women in her family, and in particular with how strong-minded and independent women have overcome the limitations imposed on them by the constraints of their time, and the way generations of women hold families and communities together in times of crisis, including during WW2.
After graduating in English from Lancaster University and Kings College, London, Juliet worked on a variety of jobs to support her ambition to be a full-time writer. These ranged from running a craft stall at Covent Garden to running a small charity working with disadvantaged children, and collecting oral histories of traditional villages before they are lost forever. She finally achieved her dream of becoming a published author following a debilitating viral illness, with her first novel being a finalist for The People’s Book Prize and her first two novels reaching #4 and #5 in the UK Kindle store.
Juliet now lives in a traditional quarryman’s cottage in Snowdonia, North Wales, set between the mountains and the sea, with an overgrown garden (good for insects!) and a surprisingly successful grapevine. She can be found dog walking in all weathers working on the plot for her next novel, camera to hand.
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MJ Porter 